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Interview with Michael Kempf and Patrick Kimpel

Nespresso Pastry Cup 2009

Interview with Michael Kempf, patron of the Nespresso Pastry Cup 2009

First of all thanks for deciding to be the patron of the first NESPRESSO Pastry Cup. What was your ultimate experience with the first Nespresso Pastry Cup?

Well first of all, it’s a great honour to be here. Your invitation was a big surprise. I think it’s important that the new generation of chefs are encouraged and trained properly and this is a good tool for that.

How would you briefly – in a few words - describe the way NESPRESSO Grand Cru and chocolate desserts are matched together ?

(smiles) Good question. I don’t think you can systematically match chocolate and coffee together.The question is rather how was the dessert created? It depends on the ingredients used. Depending on the ingredients you can make intelligent combinations. It also depends on the type of coffee used.

What kind of experience was it? Was it done well? The project was to create a dessert that would harmonise with one of our Grand Crus.

There were many ways of matching the two – I mean the coffee and the dessert. Three or four teams put a lot of thought into it. What coffee, what it tastes like on your tongue, what taste sensations it gives you. You also notice that some didn’t really think about it, while four or five teams put a lot of thought into what the coffee tastes on the palate and what its aroma is like. They were able to apply the answers to that question very well in practice.

So you can say when a dessert, a chocolate dessert, is matched with the right coffee or Grand Cru it provides a sensational taste.

If the chef puts his mind to it he can get good results. To do that it’s important to test, taste and be critical so that the development process produces a really exciting taste.

Mr Kimpel, first of all thanks for the great competition. We are of course very interested in finding out a few things and so my first question would be, as the organiser of the first NESPRESSO Pastry Cup in 2009, what were your thoughts and feelings at the start of the competition ?

First of all I think this project is very exciting and interesting. More than anything we think of it as a competition for young chefs. Specifically, a professional and an apprentice form a team. I think that for this kind of project and given the age of the participants, we saw a very high-quality competition. It’s always good fun of course to see youngsters competing: how they spur each other on, observe each other and learn from what others are doing. So I think it’s very, very important for the community and for the group and also for cooperation.

What do Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe and Nespresso have in common, what can they get out of this ?

In principle it means that you bring qualitatively similar brands and quality items together. To do this we have to create a good balance between both Generestaurateur and Nespresso. Only good can come out of this.

And how would you briefly describe the interplay between a Nespresso Grand Cru and a chocolate dessert — in a few words ?

I don’t know if this is a few words but I would just like to say this: it’s just delicious!